Jalal al-Din Rumi was a thirteenth-century Persian scholar and teacher. His life changed forever when he met the wandering dervish Shams of Tabriz. From that friendship poured some of the most beautiful poetry ever written.
His great work, the Masnavi, opens with the song of a reed flute cut from its reed bed, crying with longing to return home.
In Their Words
“Listen to the reed and the tale it tells, how it sings of separation: Ever since they cut me from the reed bed, my cry has made men and women weep.”
Masnavi, opening (translation by Dan Dillman)
What This Sage Teaches Us
Rumi teaches that every longing of the heart is really the soul longing for the Beloved, the Great Spirit. Love is the path. Music, dance and poetry can carry us there. The pain of separation is the very thing that calls us home.
Reflect: What are you truly longing for beneath all your other longings?






